I reach toward the crystal.
"Careful…" Rhayne says behind me. Whispering carefully.
"Yeah… I will…"
I touch the altar.
The energy rushes into me and out of me at the same time. Something pours in and something gets pulled out, both sensations sharing the same space in my chest. My vision goes dark at the edges, then blurs, then blinks several times in rapid succession—my eyelids working on their own.
When it settles, I'm not in the sanctuary anymore.
I'm standing in white.
There's no room around me. No hall. No landscape. Just white stretching in every direction, with no visible horizon and no gradient to mark distance. It isn't Thirstfall. It isn't Earth. It's nothing.
Footsteps behind me.
I reach for Eventide.
My hand closes on air. The sheath is gone. The sword is gone. The Horizon armor is gone. I'm in my own skin wearing my own breath, and nothing else.
The footsteps keep coming.
Closer.
What the hell is happening…
"Hello, gentleman…"
I turn.
